Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the funding for BSL Health Access; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has not made a recent assessment of the potential merits of extending the funding for the British Sign Language (BSL) Health Access service. NHS England and NHS Improvement have commissioned a rapid review into access to BSL interpretation in the National Health Service which is near completion. The review will set out clear steps to support NHS providers to meet their responsibilities to deliver access to BSL interpretation.

All NHS providers must comply with the public sector equality duty set out in the Equality Act 2010 and the Accessible Information Standard to ensure that deaf people who wish to communicate using BSL can do so. NHS England and NHS Improvement have extended access to BSL interpretation of their 111 service via Interpreter Now.